John Kerry's Syrian Second Chance

Not so long ago, the new secretary of state was among those who saw hope in reasoning with Bashar Assad.

By

Fouad Ajami

Feb. 27, 2013 7:05 p.m. ET

As the war that has degraded and all but partitioned Syria enters its third year, the amorphous coalition known as the Friends of Syria continues to hover just off-stage. The Western democracies, moderate Arab governments and international organizations that constitute the coalition are indeed friends of the opposition to the despotic regime of Bashar Assad—but at arm's length. There is always another meeting around the corner, another set of benchmarks laid out by these friends, who then judge that the opposition has not achieved a sufficient level of pluralism and democratic devotion to merit the coalition's...